The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1887-10-06

when ten years ago, Win commissioner VI
police and detective and two elders OF my
ckarch, l explored these cities by mid
night, not out Of curiosity, but that might
In pulpit discourse set before the people
the poverty and the horrors Of UNDER
ground city life. Yet, though l never was
intoxicated for an instant, and never com.
mitted one act Of dissoluteness, restrained
only by the grace Of God, without which
restraint I would have gone headlong TO
the bottom of infamy, have had so much
fun that don't believe there is man on
the planet In the present time who has had
more.
Hear il, men and boys, women and girls,
all the fun is on the side OF right. Sin may
seem attractive, but it is beautiful, and,
like the mHnchineel, a tree whose dews
are poisonous. The only genuine
happiness is I'm an honest Christian
life. The Chippewa, wanting to see God,
blackens his face with charcoal and
fasts till re has vision Of what ho
calls God. NV God, can see best when
take my hat of and let the sunshine blaze
In my face, and after a reasonable break
fast. He is not God of blackness and star
walton, but oflight and plentitude, and the
glory of the MONDAY sun is Egyptian
midnight compared 10 it.
There they go-two brothers. The one
was converted year ago in church, one
Sunday morning during prayer, or SER
mon, or hymn. No one knew it at the
time. The persons on either side of him
suspected nothing, but in that young
mans soul this process went on:
"Lord, here am, a young man amid the
temptations of city life, and am afraid to
risk them alone; come and be my guar
H.. l., r.. l.
the mistake that some of my comrades are
making, and save me now"
And quicker than a flash God rolled
Heaven into his soul. He is just as jolly
rs he used to he, is just as brilliant as he
used to be. He can strike ball or catch
ons as easily as before he was converted.
With gun or fishing-rod in this summer
vacation he was just as skillful as before.
The world is brighter to him than ever.
He appreciates pictures, music, innocent
hilarity, social life, good jokes, and has
plenty of fun, tirSt-class fun, glorious
fun.
But his brother is going down hill. In
the morrGng his head aches from the
champagne debauch. Everybody sees he
10 in rapid descent. What cares he for
right or decency, or the honor Of his
fsmilyi Turned out of employment,
depleted in health, cast down
in spirits, the typhoid fever strikes him in
the smallest room on the fourth story Of
;i!th-rat boarding house, cursing God
rpd calling for his mother, and Il yhtin2
tRcl, demons from his dying pillow, which
n be~weated and torn to rags. He plunges
oAt of this world with the shrek of
DESTROYED spirit.
Alas for that kind of funl It is re-
Uorse. 1t is Despair 1t is blackness OF
darkness. 1t is woe amending and long
reYerberating, and crushing Us though all
the mountains OF all continents rolled or
him in one avalanche. Ny soul, stand
back from such fun. Young man there is
no fun in shipwrecking your character,
no fun in disgracing your fathers
name. There is no fun in breaking your
mothers heart. There is no fun in the
physical pangs Of the dissolute. There IS
no fun in the profigate's death-bed.
There is no fun in an undoIe eternity.
Paracelsus, out of the ashes of burnt
rose, said he could recreGte tho rose, hui
lie failed in the alchemic undertaking.
and the roseate life once burned down il
sin can never again be made to blossom.
Oh. this plumb lile of the everlasting
right! God will throw it over all our lives
God will throw it over all churche.
to show whether they are doing usefu
work or are attending instances CT idle
ne4s and pretense. He will throw that
plumb line over all nations to demonstrate
whether their laws are just or cruel, their
rulers good or bad, their ambitions holy
o: Infamous. He threw that plumb line
over the Spanish monarchy of other days,
and what became of her? Ask the splint-
cred hulks of her overthrown armada
He threw that plumb line over French
imperialism, and what was the result!
Ask the ruins of tho Tuileries, and the
fallen column Of the Place Vendome, and
the grave trenches Of Sedan, and the blood
Of revolutions at different times rolling
through tho Champs ElysceS. lie threw
that plumb line over ancient Rome,
nnd what became of the realm
of the Caesars? Ask her war eagles,
with beaks dulled and wings broken, flung
helpless into the Tiber. He threw it over
the ASSyran Empire of thousand years
The thrones of SemiramuS and Sardanl-
paluS and ShalmaneSer, of twentv-seven
victorious expeditions, the cities of Pho
nicia kneeling to tho sccpter, and al! the
world banched in the presence. What
became of all the grandeur! Ask the
fallen palaces of KhOrsabad and the
c0rpseS OF ISL, 900 soldiery slain by the an
gei Of the Lord in one night, and the As
syrian sculptures of the worlds museums,
all that now remains of that splendor be-
fore which nations staggered and
crOncEed.
God is now throwing thai plumb.line
over this American Republir, and it is a
solemn time with this Nation, and whether
we keep his Sabbaths or dishonor them,
whether righteousness or iniquity domi
nate, whether we are Christians or iniidel
whether we fulfill our mission Or refuse it,
whether we are for God or against him Well
decide whether we shall as nation go on
in a higher and higher career or go down
III the same grave where Babylon and
Nineyeh and Taebej and AsSyIia are
sepulChred.
"But" say Won, 'if there be nothing
hut plumb line, what can any of US do:
for there is an old proverb which trGtL
fully declares: If the best mans faults
were written on his forehead it would
make him pull his hat over his eyes,
What shall we do when, according &c
| Isaiah, God shall lay Judgment to the
king and righteousness to the Piummet"
Alb! here is where the gospel comes i'll
with Saviour's righteousness to make W
for our deficits. And while l see h,ngin.
| on the wall plumb line, see also hang.
| ing there a cross. And while the one
condemns us the other saves us, if only
we will held to it. And here and now
| you may be set free with more glorious
liberty than Hampden, or Sidney, or
Kosciusko ever fought for. Not out yon'
! n lY,N